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SIMULATION-BASED DESIGN METHOD FOR ROOM AIR


CONDITIONER WITH SMALLER DIAMETER COPPER TUBES

DING G.L.(*), REN T.(*), ZHENG Y.X.( **), GAO Y.F.(**)


(*)
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China,
glding@sjtu.edu.cn
(**)
International Copper Association Shanghai Office, Shanghai 200020, China

ABSTRACT

Promoting the use of smaller diameter tube in room air conditioner is beneficial to reduce copper
consumption and refrigerant charge, but may cause reduction of air conditioner performance, so a design
method is needed for air conditioner with smaller diameter tube. This paper presents a simulation-based
design method for air conditioner with smaller diameter tube. The new method combines heat exchanger
simulator and knowledge-based evolution method optimizer to design and optimize air conditioner heat
exchanger with smaller diameter tube. The simulation-based design method is illustrated in detail by an air
conditioner of replacing 7 mm tube indoor unit heat exchanger and 9.52 mm tube outdoor unit heat
exchanger with 5 mm tube. Case study shows that the cost of the designed air conditioner with 5 mm copper
tube is 17.3% lower than that of the original one while the performance deviation between these two air
conditioners is less than 0.7%.

1. INTRODUCTION

Air conditioners are commonly used, and their increasing utilization is prompting the energy and material
consumption. Promoting the use of smaller diameter tubes in room air conditioners is beneficial to reduce
copper consumption, charge inventory and leakage of refrigerant, but it may obviously affect refrigerant heat
transfer coefficient and pressure drop (Ding et al. 2009; Wei et al. 2007), which may result in reduction of
heat exchange capacity of room air conditioner heat exchangers (Liang et al. 2001). Moreover, the heat
transfer area of fins may also be reduced with the decrease of tube diameter (Wang et al. 1998; Ma et al.
2009), which may also lead to reduction of heat exchange capacity. Therefore, the heat exchanger should be
optimized when the tubes are replaced by smaller ones.

Currently, copper tubes with the diameter of 7 mm or 9.52 mm are widely used in air conditioner heat
exchangers. If these tubes are replaced by 5 mm copper tubes, the size and cost of heat exchangers may be
reduced. However, the utilization of 5 mm copper tubes will affect the heat exchange and pressure drop
behaviour of heat exchangers (Ding et al. 2009), and the performances of heat exchangers might decrease.
The heat exchange area inside and outside 5 mm copper tubes are reduced by more than 20% and 10%,
respectively; while the friction pressure drop of 5 mm copper tubes is 10%~30% larger than that of 7 mm
copper tubes under the same working condition (Ding et al. 2009, Huang et al. 2010). The change of heat
exchange area and pressure drop may result in the decrease of the performance of heat exchanger with 5 mm
copper tubes.

The feasible ways to avoid shortages in the utilization of 5 mm copper tubes in heat exchanger are to
increase copper tubes and aluminium fins to enlarge heat exchange area, especially to design new flow
circuit to reduce pressure drop as the circuit arrangement has obviously effect on the performance of the heat
exchanger (Wang et al. 1999). Whether the copper tubes or the aluminium fins need be added closely
depends on the price difference between them, and either way leads to the redesign of flow circuit by the
change of heat exchanger. Indicated by currently studies, the counter-cross flow circuit gives better
performance for condenser, the parallel-cross flow circuit gives a low pressure drop for evaporator, and the
NU-shape flow circuit is the reasonable one for heat exchanger in both cooling and heating operation.
The simulation based optimization method has been increasingly used for heat exchanger optimization
because of the advantage of short time consumption and less resource requirements, comparing with the
traditional cut & try approaches (Ding 2007); and it is considered as the most effective way to attain the
required performance in the design of heat exchanger with 5 mm copper tubes. Distributed-parameter models
are usually used as the basis of simulation based optimization for heat exchangers, and there are a lot of
available distributed-parameter models of heat exchangers. Domanski (1991) developed a model based on
tube by tube method; Jiang et al. (2006) and Singh et al. (2009) developed models based on segment-by-
segment method; Liu et al. (2004) developed a general model based on graph theory, and took heat
conduction through fins into consideration; Wu et al. (2008a) extended Lius model (Liu et al., 2004) to
include fin-and-tube heat exchangers containing capillary tubes inside. For optimization, an optimization
algorithm should be coupled with the distributed-parameter model, in which the optimization algorithm is
used to control the optimization process and generate initial solutions, while the distributed-parameter model
is applied to evaluate solutions generated by the optimization algorithm. For example, Domanski and Yashar
(2007), and Wu et al. (2008b; 2008c) coupled evolution algorithm with distributed-parameter model to
optimize flow circuitry of fin-and-tube heat exchangers.

Considering the need of designing flow circuit for the increase of copper tubes and aluminium fins as well as
the order of their increment in the design heat exchanger with 5 mm copper tubes, this paper is to propose an
effective method to design air conditioner heat exchanger with 5 mm copper tubes based on simulation in
order to obtain the lowest consumption of copper tubes and aluminium fins when the designed heat
exchanger has the similar performance as the air conditioner heat exchanger with larger diameter copper
tubes. Considering the need to design the air conditioner with smaller diameter copper tube, the present
study is to provide a simulation-based design method for air conditioner with smaller diameter copper tube,
which combines heat exchanger simulator and knowledge-based evolution method (KBEM) optimizer to
obtain the lowest cost and maintain air conditioner performance.

2. DESIGN METHOD

The optimization problem for room air conditioner with smaller diameter copper tube can be described as
follows:
Min F ( x)
st. Q( x ) Qref
(1)
x = [ L, f p , N ,...]
xmin x xmax
where, F is the cost of heat exchanger related x; Q is the heat exchanger capacity related to x; Q ref is the
reference heat exchanger capacity set by designer; x is the optimization variables of heat exchangers
structure, including heat exchangers length L, fin pitch fp, path number N and et al.; x min and x max are the
minimum value and maximum value of x, respectively.

The optimization is done based on a high reliable model of the heat exchanger, and combine an optimization
algorithm to search the available design space and the cost of heat exchanger is calculated by considering the
material consumption and manufacturing cost.

2.1. Heat exchanger simulator


In the present study, Lius distributed-parameter model based on graph theory (Liu et al. 2004) is adopted to
predict heat exchanger performance. Lius model is a three dimensional distributed-parameter model, and it
has the ability to simulate heat exchanger or heat exchanger combinations of different tube diameter and
structure with a high accuracy. The predicted heat exchange capacity of Lius model agree with experimental
ones within a maximum error of 10%.

Lius model divides heat exchanger into several control volumes along length, width and height direction, as
shown in Figure 1. Each single control volume includes three objects (i.e., refrigerant, air and fin-tube), and
the governing equations of each object are established. The governing equations of refrigerant include energy
equation and momentum equation as shown in Equations (2) and (3), respectively; the governing equations
of air include energy equation and momentum equation as shown in Equations (4) and (5), respectively; the
governing equation of fin-tube is energy balance equation as shown in Equation (6).
T +T
=
Qr ) r Ai r ,in r ,out Twall
M r (hr ,out hr ,in=
2 (2)
pr = pr , f + pr , acc + pr , g
(3)
T +T
=
Qa M a (ha ,out ha ,=
in ) a Ao a ,in a ,out Twall
2 (4)
G 2
Ao a ,in
=pa a ,max
f a + (1 + 2 ) a ,in 1
2 a ,i
Ac a ,m a ,m (5)
Qr + Qa + Q front + Qback + Qtop + Qbottom =
0
(6)
where, Q r is heat exchange of refrigerant side; r is heat transfer coefficient of refrigerant side; A i is heat
transfer area of refrigerant side; T r,in and T r,out are inlet and outlet temperature of refrigerant, respectively;
T wall is tube wall temperature; p r is pressure drop of refrigerant side; p r,f is frictional pressure drop; p r,acc
is acceleration pressure drop; p r,g is the pressure drop caused by gravity; Q a is heat exchange of air side; a
is heat transfer coefficient of air side; A o is heat transfer area of air side; T a,in and T a,out are inlet and outlet
dry bulb temperature, respectively; p a is pressure drop of air side; G a,max is air mass flux at minimum cross-
sectional area; f a is friction factor of air; is contraction ratio of cross-sectional area; Q front , Q back , Q top and
Q bottom are heat conductions through fins from front row, back row, upper column and bottom column,
respectively.

Qtop
Inlet hr,in
0

ha,in ha,out
14
Column #7 7 Qfront Qback
13
Column #6 6 hr,out
12
Column #5 5 Qbottom
Air flow 11
4
10
Column #3 3
9
Column #2 2
8
Column #1 1
Row #1 Row #2

15
Outlet
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of heat exchanger and a single control volume.

Table 1. Heat transfer and pressure drop correlation for two phase refrigerant
Correlation
Tube diameter Items
Evaporation Condensation
Heat transfer Kandlikar et al. 1997 Yu and Koyama 1998
7 mm and 9.52 mm
Pressure drop Kuo and Wang 1996 Smith et al. 2001
Heat transfer Hu et al. 2009 Yu and Koyama 1998
5 mm
Pressure drop Ding et al. 2009 Huang et al. 2009

The accuracy of distributed-parameter model is affected by the accuracy of correlations, and the correlations
used to predict heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in normal diameter tube may not be suitable for
small diameter tube (Ding et al. 2009; Hu et al. 2009; Huang et al. 2010). In the present study, the
correlations for heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are carefully chosen, as shown in Table 1.

2.2. Knowledge-based evolution method


The knowledge-based evolution method (KBEM) (Wu et al. 2008b, 2008c) is used to optimize heat
exchanger. It consists of two parts: an improved genetic algorithm (IGA) and the knowledge-based
optimization module (KOM) that consists of domain knowledge-based search methods. Figure 2 shows the
schematic framework of the KBEM.
Start

Initialize the population


IGA
Evaluation

Selection

Crossover

Mutation

Correction

Knowledge-based methods for


searching new geometry

Correction
KOM
Evaluation

no
Convergence?

yes

End

Figure 2. Schematic of the framework of the KBEM.

The IGA in the KBEM is an improved version of the conventional genetic algorithm. The improvements in
IGA include the tailor-made coding method, specific initialization method, and improved genetic operators
(crossover, mutation and correction). Correction operators are added in the IGA to absolutely avoid
infeasible solutions. The IGA is the basis of the KBEM because it generates the initial solutions and controls
the whole optimization process.

The knowledge-based search methods are applied to increase the optimization efficiency by reducing the
search space according to the domain knowledge without losing optimal solutions. The main reason for the
low efficiency of the conventional genetic operators is that they neglect the inner characteristics of the
optimization object and only use random operations to blindly search the solutions on a wide solution space.
Applying the domain knowledge to generate better solutions by considering the inner characteristics of the
optimization object may help to make up the deficiency of the conventional genetic operators, and then
improve the efficiency of the optimization process. In the KBEM, the knowledge-based search methods are
integrated into one module which is used after the genetic operations of the IGA during the optimization
process.

2.3. Scheme of simulation-based design method


Figure 3 shows the process of simulation-based design method for room air conditioner with smaller
diameter tube, which mainly includes potential geometry investigation, first priority analysis, fixed inputs
and heat exchanger optimization. The potential geometry investigation is used to analyze the design
constraints, such as space, manufacturability, etc. The first priority analysis is used to analyze the potential
geometries with first priority of whether tube or fin should be first increased by considering the performance
and cost of heat exchanger. The fixed inputs are used to fix potential geometries of heat exchangers are fixed
after the first priority analysis. A multi-objective optimizer KBEM is used to control the optimization
process and obtain optimal solution of heat exchangers.

Start Potential geometry First priority Inputs


investigation analysis fixation

Candidate
Optimal Heat exchanger flow circutry Optimizer:
solution simulator Candidate KBEM
geometry

Heat exchanger
optimization
Figure 3. Scheme of simulation-based design method for air conditioner with smaller diameter tube.

3. CASE STUDY

In order to illustrate the detailed procedure of the design method, a room air conditioner is chosen for case
illustration. The tube diameters of indoor unit and outdoor unit heat exchangers are 7 mm and 9.52 mm,
respectively; and both of them are required to be decreased to 5 mm. The other structural parameters and
working conditions are shown in Table 2, and the flow circuitries are shown in Figure 4.

Table 2. Structural parameters of the test case.


Indoor unit heat exchanger Outdoor unit heat exchanger
Structural parameters
7 mm tube 5 mm tube 9.52 mm 5 mm
Length/Width/Height, mm 618.0/34.2/228.6 618.0/34.2/228.6 779.5/22/508.0 779.5/22.8/495.3
Row Number/Column Number 3/12 3/12 1/20 2/26
Per Row
Row space/Column space, mm 11.4/19.0 11.4/19.0 22.0/25.4 11.4/19.0
Bottom Boundary Space of 4.75, 14.25 4.75, 14.25 6.3, 18.9 5.25, 13.8
Each Row, mm
Path number 5 5 2 4
Fin Thickness, mm/Fin Pitch, 0.105/1.6 0.105/1.4 0.105/1.6 0.105/1.4
mm
Tube Thickness, mm/Tube 0.25/7.0 0.20/5.0 0.28/9.52 0.20/5.0
Diameter, mm

The following procedures are applied to obtain the optimal solution for the room air conditioner with smaller
diameter tube.

First step: potential geometry investigation. The potential geometry are investigated at first before the
simulation of heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes in order to match the actual condition of heat
exchangers and to reduce the time consumption in the simulation process. The investigation is executed by
considering the given parameters and design constraints of heat exchanger with 5 mm copper tubes, and the
potential geometry of heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes can be ascertained as: the available fin pitch
(1.1 mm~1.5 mm) and the flow circuitry.

Second step: first priority analysis. The copper tubes and aluminium fins are to be increased so as to attain
the required performance of heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes. In order to achieve this goal with
lowest cost, the price difference between the copper tubes and aluminium fins as well as the constraint of
potential geometry of heat exchanger with 5 mm copper tubes should be considered. The price of copper
tubes price is three times more than that of the aluminium fins for the same weight, and the number of copper
tubes can not be increased by the constraint. Both of them lead to that the aluminium fin has the first priority
to be increased to obtain the required performance in the design of heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes.
Ai
rf
low
Air
low
flo
w Air f

Outlet Inlet Outlet Inlet

Path #1 Path #4

Path #3

Path #2
Path #2

Path #1

(a) 9.52 mm tube outdoor unit heat exchanger (b) 5 mm tube outdoor unit heat exchanger

Inlet Outlet Inlet Outlet


Path #5 Path #5

Path #4 Path #4

Path #3 Path #3
Air flow Air flow

Path #2

Path #1 Path #2

Path #1

(c) 7 mm tube indoor unit heat exchanger (d) 5 mm tube indoor unit heat exchanger

Figure 3: Heat exchangers of original air conditioner and that using 5 mm tubes

Third step: Input parameters fixation. The parameters of the heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes are
fixed among the potential geometries of this heat exchanger after the first priority analysis. The fixed
parameters, as shown in Table 2, are used as the inputs of the heat exchangers optimization in fourth.

Fourth step: heat exchanger optimization. The optimization of the heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes is
run in the heat exchanger simulation and optimization software developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University
(Liu et al. 2004, Wu et al. 2008b, 2008c). In order to obtain high precision optimal solution, the heat
exchanger simulator has been corrected by the experimental data of room air conditioner with original
diameter tubes before being used to the current 5 mm heat exchanger optimization. And then, the heat
exchanger simulator associated with the KBEM optimizer is used to simulate and optimize different
available types of heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes.

The optimal design of indoor unit heat exchanger with 5 mm copper tube is obtained as that the fins pitch is
1.4 mm and the flow circuitry is 5 paths. The optimal design of outdoor unit heat exchanger with 5 mm
copper tube is obtained as that the fins pitch is 1.4 mm and the flow circuitry is 4 paths. The detailed
parameters and flow circuitry of designed air conditioner with 5 mm copper tubes are shown as Table 2 and
Figure 3. The temperature distributions along flow path of the designed heat exchangers with 5 mm copper
tubes are shown as Figure 4.

(a) indoor unit heat exchanger (b) Outdoor unit heat exchanger
Figure 4. Temperature distributions along flow path of the designed heat exchangers with 5 mm copper tubes

The cost of indoor unit and outdoor unit heat exchanger with 5 mm copper tube are shown as Figure 5. It can
be obtained from Figure 5 that the cost of indoor unit and outdoor unit heat exchangers with 5 mm copper
tube is decreased by 35.9% and 1.61%, respectively, and the total cost of indoor unit and outdoor unit heat
exchangers is reduced by 17.3%.
250
Design air conditioner
Original air conditioner
200
Cost (RMB)

150
5 mm 9.52 mm
7 mm
100
5 mm
50

0
Outdoor unit Indoor unit Total cost
cost cost
Figure 5. Cost comparison of designed air conditioner and original air conditioner.

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT

Both the designed air conditioner with 5 mm copper tube and the original air conditioner are tested in the
same working conditions. The performances of these two air conditioners are measured by the enthalpy
potential method, and the experimental results are shown as Table 3. It can be obtained from Table 3 that
both the deviations of cooling capacity and EER of the designed air conditioner with 5 mm copper tubes
from those of the original air conditioner are less than 0.70%. As the uncertainty of the experimental rig is
2%, a difference of less than 0.7% can be omitted.

Table 3 Experimental data of designed air conditioner and original air conditioner.
Item Original air conditioner 5 mm tube air conditioner
Cooling capacity 3469 W 3484 W
EER 2.71 2.69
Indoor unit heat capacity 3469 W 3484 W
Outdoor unit heat capacity 4093 W 4114.8 W
5. CONCLUSIONS

(1) Promoting the use of 5 mm tubes instead of 7 mm or larger diameter tubes can obviously decrease the
cost of fin-and-tube heat exchangers in room air conditioners while the performance keeps well.
(2) The simulation-based design method is a useful tool for the optimization of a room air conditioner while
smaller diameter tubes are used instead of larger tubes.

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